LINK: Jay-Z Talks To MTV About Writing His Lyrics

In a new interview with MTV, Jay-Z talks about his influential songwriting method, which is based on thinking of ones lyrics rather than writing them down. “I’ve inspired a generation of bad writers,” Jay joked to MTV last week. The article goes in depth about the last song that Jay actually wrote his lyrics down for—1996′s “Can I Live”—and reveals that he almost wrote the lyrics for The Black Album, but he had a hard time shaking his favored method:

“It just felt better [the way I do it now],” Jay said. “In my mind, I wanted to sit down and write and do this thing a certain way. But your natural process is your process. It’s difficult to go back to what you were doing when you were 15 or 16, but my process is different [now]. It sounds great on paper, ‘I’m gonna sit down and write this entire album like I did before.’ But once you get back in the studio and you been doing this process for years and years, it just felt natural to do it the way I been doing it. No paper, no pen, just listen to the music and do it.”

Recommended for You

Around the Web

Best of XXL

MDAce15

Simply the best! How a person can rhyme the way he does without writing it down bugs the hell outta me. Think about it he is the best to ever do it and hasnt written it down on paper since 96. As I said. Simply the best.

Colron

Its like doing math in your head or without a calculator, but easier cause reps helps. Trust me. ;)

Like it’s HARDER to write it down than remember it in your head. I don’t doubt he does it, but he sweats it too hard.

Cruz

Lil Wayne Simply the best bitch Fuck Jay z bitch azz writing rhymes not writing rhymes WAYNE IS THE BEST YOUNG MONEY ALL DAY KING HIP HOP

FUCK

NAS
JAY
T.I

HAWAIIAN

damn Cruz has lost his mind!

beatz23

Wayne is good but even he said Jay was the best rapper alive

XTC

u dont kno what ur talkin about u too young to remember real hip hop lil wayne is garbage his flow is all out of place repeats the same words voice is annoying TRUST ME! I tryed my best to like him but IM SORRY he sucks

take ya head outta ya ass….blow a dick and shut the fuck up cause you dont know shit about SHIT….

get at me….

fuckin posers….

http://xxlmag.com Tre Trilla

A Cruz you snappin like Wayne ya boo or summin.. You got something u want to tell the people, u in the closet fag.. Damn u just went off on a bunch of rappers who dont know u or give a fuk about u and are rich and u said fuk them.. Lax homie….

dam dat nigga CRUZ jus had sum of dat blue magic up in his veins cuz hes all fucked up in da game lol,gotta b dat1 nigga to bring up wayne lol i luv it,yo cruz wen carter3 droppin homie?is it me or his leaked songs gettin wacker n wacker by da mixtape?dis nigga backs his favorite rapper up more den his favorite rapper backs himself up…ur boy weezy jus said da best rapper alive and im next in line on stage wit HOVA even he pays homage to da G.O.A.T. besides jay tell me weezy nicer den nas,big l,biggie,and pun and ill go line for line wit u n have u feelin real stupid…neways dam i aint even no he only wrote can i live i thought it was a few more tracks den dat,how da fuck he spit 22’2s off da top of da dome? or dead presidents,dis nigga is ridiculous wit da flow.

truth 10

GOOD HE FINALLY SAID WHAT I BEEN THINKING FOR YEAR. 98 % OF THESE RAPPERS ARE TRASH. TO MANY MCS AND NOT ENOUGH MICS

cruz must be on something cuz jay z is definatley one of the best ever.lil wayne is ass.maybe once he takes his fathers dick out of his mouth he can be something. he is who jay was talking about as one of those bad writers cuz he tries to just go in the booth without writing and he sucks cuz not everyone can so it.if wayne came at jay he would probably give it to memphis bleek or let his nephew get his career started on waynes faggot ass lol

Suckmykickz

THIS BITCH BIT BIGGIES STYLE NOW HES ACTING AS IF HE CREATED IT WHAT A DORK

AmericanWriter

I’m not trying to discredit the big homie (Jay) but real talk, if your only job is too write songs all day long, than writing a song in your mind or laying something down in 10 mins shouldn’t be nothing. I mean thats like saying Allen Iverson is a great ball player. Well if thats the nigga’s job, why wouldn’t he be?

P.S All you rappers need to realise that none of you are Jay and therefore none writing songs will only equal none fans and or record sales.

AZ40

Lil wayne just started to rhyme like that, he got the whole east coast punchline thing, and he’s simply doing what Fabolous did when he came out hop on every remix and mixtape, he hasn’t done anything ground breaking or had classic albums…Any way that nigga was wearing all blue in an old video now it’s blood this blood that, wear red, etc. etc.

“You can’t say wobble de wobble de and be the best. You can’t dress like us and Jim Jones and try to rhyme like Jay-Z and be the best”-Clipse

TEXAS BOI

I CAN TELL SOME OF THESE CATS DON’T SHIT ABOUT MUSIC. JAY-Z HANDS DOWN RUNNING THIS RAP SHIT. NOT WRITING AND PUTTING UP PLATINUM CLASSICS IN THE STREETS IS DEFINITELY TRUE MASTER AT HIS CRAFT. THATS THE NEXT LEVEL PEOPLE, VISUALIZE YOUR BARS IN YOUR HEAD AND THEN PUT IT TOGETHER TO MAKE HOT SHIT. LIL WAYNE CAN’T COMPETE, FACE IT. JAY IS HIS MENTOR AND HE HASN’T YET GOT NEAR IS THE MONEY OR STAR STATUS AS HE HAS. FUCK THESE MIXTAPE SHIT, WHERE IS THE CLASSIC ALBUMS? TEXAS MADE, BITCHES HOLLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

http://xxlMAG JOHNNY BOY

You know he’s right. Unfortunately the hip hop that inspired Jay isn’t
around anymore. And what makes it even worse is that 5-10 years from now were gonna have artist inspired the garbage playing now :-(

JAY-Z A FOCKEN WANKER,THEY LOVE HIM IN LONDON,MY TEAM WOULD LOVE TO TIE THIS WEAK PIECE OF SHITE UP AND TOSS HIM IN THE BACK OF THE LORRY….SET THE SHITE ABLAZE AND HEAR HIM SQUEAL ON SOME AGGRO SHITE…FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY

nellz

These rap niggas aint even freestylin freestyles…remember dear summer…when he spit it on flex?…and for the last time…wayne don’t sound like jay…only similarity is that they they take bars of their verses…he sound like 3000

What about 2pac

Ill take 2pac anyday of the week. Pac was the best. He was the realest and even Scarface said that. If you notice when Pac was alive not of these niggas would say shit to him or battle him. Nas Jay and even Big. They all gained by his death, but he still out sells these niggas and hes dead. What does that tell you?

TEFFLON

MAN I DON’T BELEIVE NO RAPPER TALKING ABOUT THEY NEVER WRITE THEIR LYRICS DOWN…STRAIGHT BS….ALL THAT WEED SMOCKING AND DRINKING, YOUR MEMORY CANT BE DAT GOOD…YEAH YOU CAN PUT A TRACK A TWO DOWN IN 1 SESSION, BUT TO TELL U YOU CAN DO AN ENTIRE ALBUM WITHOUT WRITTING SHIT DOWN IS A FUCKIN LIE…1

http://xxlmag.com houston’s finest

yes you did inspire a generation of bad writers, look at the roc (outside of kanye) freeway bricked, beans next, then young chris. yes hov, you inspire garbage!

princerudynasim

yeah aaaight he never rights cause in meet the parents he didnt right bullshitting ass nigga n ya say he’s “best rapper alive” or ya mean rapping cause ya tend to forget about my man Eminem who has ever brought more originality than this guy he’s the reason why half of these fucks stepped up there game n EM would rip a song better than jay rip him in a freestyle the only thing jay might do better is write a party song but dadadadad dats all folksbest rapper alive ha its easy to write of ur head also when ur a notorious swagger jacker as well damn jay hussles his fans bad

the one

Sorry, no hate but I can’t respect Jay on this one. Biggie was the first one talkin bout not writin rhymes down. In an Interview I heard from Ed Lover like about 10 years ago, B.I.’s Party and Bullshit song that was on the “Who’s The Man” soundtract. Ed said B.I. came In, couldn’t get nothin goin to the beat, went an lit a blunt In the stairwell, came back and did the whole song no pad no pen. Knock It off Camel Man. Get off B.I’s dick already damn. You just dropped a hot album now sit down and shut the fuck up. T.I., I heard you talkin that no pad no pen shit too, stop It man. Pad or Pen, who cares? Just put out hot products so we can all just be happy.

http://XXLMAG DUNFIYA

BIGGIE DID A TRACK WITH GAY-Z ON “REASONABLE DOUBT”AND HE(HOV) SAID HIS SELF HE HAD TO PROVE HIMSELF TO BIGGIE THAT HE COULD FLOW….BROOKLYN IS THE ONLY THING B.I.G AND HIM HAVE IN COMMON.LIVIN OFF ANOTHER MAN’S GLOW DAMN SHAME the one is sooo correct

2PAC

2PAC IS THE GREATEST AND JAY Z AND BIG KNOW IT. THEY COULDNT FUCK WITH HIM AND STILL CANT BECAUSE HE WAS THE REALEST EVEN FACE SAID IT

Jack

Jay-Z is the best ever he’s sold the most if you go by that his music sounds the best he’s been the most consistent everything in every category is first and he’s not even done.

ps people please stop pretending to be other people like jr writer and busta make up a name or use your name don’t use somebody else’s thats the definition of fake rap is against fake so get outta hear with that.

THEGOD

why is everybody trippin like jay is the ONLY rapper that does it. common admits to not writing we all know lil wayne don’t be writing that extrordinary shit down and kanye and sigel both don’t write. its all practice and perfecting your craft. some emcees feel comfortable with a pen and a pad because they don’t practice the art of memorizing the lyrics while writing them. its the same thing as writing on paper. it still comes from the mind its a matter if you can retain it after you finish it. jay perfected retaining songs not just lyrics. its not hard to remeber your line. but with the flow of how you say it with the delivery is all retaining.